I agree with alpingloin about how easy those bookplates look to be duplicated. With the instant price jump the original books saw, it is going to be very easy for others to try to capitalize for a quick dishonest buck.

I hadn't noticed the Yeltsin and Vonnegut bookplates last time I looked through his auctions. It seems unbelievable that eBay doesn't do something about sellers like this...

a Deluxe bookplated book has shown up on eBay now - looks to be from the family that was in front of you in line. Here is a quote from their auction: "only the first 8 people managed to get deluxe with book plate as they were put into books by staff at waterstones by mistake once in they could not remove so they had to sell like that so i was verry lucky"

Any feel for how many deluxe copies got bookplates from when you were there? The above quote feels mostly like hyperbole to get a higher eBay price to me.

"HarperCollins' David Brawn, the publisher of Hurin, told the media that the movie rights are presently unavailable but that he imagines at some point a deal will be made with a studio. For the moment the Tolkien estate is content with letting the novel get out there and see what the response is from the fanbase before thoughts of a movie adaptation begin to happen."